Precon Upgrade Guide
Painbow Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the five-color multicolor precon from Dominaria United, commanded by Jared Carthalion.
Dominaria United
Painbow
Five colors through painlands means managing your own life total. Out of the box, before any upgrades. How we rate precons
Buy Painbow on TCGplayer →Quick verdict
Painbow is a five-color deck that rewards casting spells with many colors, and when its mana works it has some of the strongest individual cards in its product. Jared Carthalion makes a 3/3 Kavu that is all colors every turn, and cards like Knight of New Alara and Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile pay off for each color. The problem is getting there: the mana base is almost all tapped lands, the deck has few mana creatures for a green deck, and a planeswalker commander needs more protection than the deck gives it.
TurnZero HQ rates Painbow a 3 out of 5 on difficulty and a 3 out of 5 on power, as it comes in the box. That is our editorial read, not an official Wizards rating. The full hundred cards are on the Painbow decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
Jared Carthalion is a five-mana planeswalker that costs one of each color and can be your commander. Its +1 creates a 3/3 Kavu with trample that is all colors. Its -3 puts +1/+1 counters on up to two creatures equal to the number of colors each one is, so an all-color creature gets five. Its -6 returns a multicolored card from your graveyard to your hand, and if that card was all colors, you also draw a card and make two Treasures.
The deck spends its early turns fixing. Land searches like Cultivate , Farseek and Kodama's Reach find basics, and Faeburrow Elder and Zaxara, the Exemplary make several colors at once. Archelos, Lagoon Mystic and Tiller Engine help with the many tapped lands.
The payoffs care about colors. Knight of New Alara gives each other multicolored creature +1/+1 per color, Hero of Precinct One makes a token for every multicolored spell, Mana Cannons deals damage equal to a multicolored spell's colors, and Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile makes a 4/4 Angel whenever you cast a spell that is all colors.
What works out of the box
Jared Carthalion ↗
Makes an all-color 3/3 Kavu every turn, and its -3 puts five counters on any all-color creature. It defends itself and grows the board.
Knight of New Alara ↗
Gives each other multicolored creature +1/+1 for each of its colors. Jared's Kavu tokens become 8/8s.
Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile ↗
Scry 1 for every multicolored spell, and a 4/4 flying Angel for every spell that is all colors.
Faeburrow Elder ↗
Taps for one mana of each color among your permanents, which in this deck is often four or five mana.
Iridian Maelstrom ↗
Destroys every creature that isn't all colors. Your Kavu tokens and all-color creatures survive while most opponents' boards don't.
Archelos, Lagoon Mystic ↗
While it is untapped, your permanents enter untapped. In a deck full of tapped lands, that saves a lot of tempo.
What needs improvement
The mana base is the deck's biggest problem. Ten tri-lands, the five sacrifice lands like Bad River and Grasslands , and Krosan Verge all enter tapped, while Crystal Quarry and Cascading Cataracts only make colored mana for five extra. The deck usually spends its first several turns with one tapped land after another, which is slow for a commander that needs all five colors.
A planeswalker commander attracts attacks, and the deck has little cheap interaction to defend it. Most of its answers are board wipes like Duneblast , Merciless Eviction and Time Wipe , which also hit its own board. See how much removal a Commander deck needs.
Upgrade ideas
Each upgrade below starts from something the deck does poorly and says what a replacement card has to do. The cards named are examples, not the only answer: if you own something else that does the same job, or a newer printing does it better, it goes in the same slot. Make one change at a time and play a few games between them, so you can tell which change helped. The general method is in how to upgrade a Commander precon →
1. Add mana creatures that make any color
Green has the best fixing in the game, and the deck plays almost none of the cheap mana creatures. One- and two-mana creatures that make any color get Jared out on turn four.
What to look for Creatures or rocks costing three or less that tap for any color, or for several colors at once.
Cut, for example
Prophetic Prism Two mana, and filtering costs another one each time. It cantrips, but a mana creature ramps as well as fixes.
Obsidian Obelisk Enters tapped and only makes colored mana for multicolored spells. Slow ramp in a deck that already has slow lands.
Selvala, Explorer Returned Its parley ability draws every player a card. It ramps a little and helps the whole table.
Add, for example
Birds of Paradise ↗
One mana, taps for any color. A flying blocker for Jared in a pinch.
Bloom Tender ↗
Two mana, taps for one mana of each color among your permanents. Much like Faeburrow Elder, for one less.
Sylvan Caryatid ↗
Two mana, taps for any color, and has hexproof, so it survives targeted removal.
Chromatic Lantern ↗
Three mana: every land you control taps for any color, and the Lantern taps for any color too.
2. Replace the colorless lands
Two lands in the deck make only colorless unless you pay five mana into them. In a deck where every key card costs one of each color, a colorless land is a real cost.
What to look for Lands that fetch any basic, or that make colored mana without a big activation cost.
Cut, for example
Crystal Quarry Makes colorless, or all five colors for {5} and a tap. You need six mana sources to make it pay off.
Cascading Cataracts Makes colorless, or five mana of any colors for {5} and a tap. It is indestructible but rarely does more than a Wastes would.
3. Add cheap interaction
Jared needs to survive attacks, and the deck's answers are mostly board wipes that also hit your Kavu. A few cheap spot answers protect it without resetting your own board.
What to look for One- to three-mana instants that answer one creature, one permanent, or one spell.
Cut, for example
Radiant Flames Damages every creature, including your own, and needs three or more colors spent to matter. The deck already has several wipes.
Merciless Eviction A six-mana wipe in a deck with Iridian Maelstrom , Duneblast and Time Wipe . One fewer wipe makes room for spot removal.
Add, for example
Swords to Plowshares ↗
One-mana instant that exiles a creature. Its controller gains life equal to its power.
Anguished Unmaking ↗
Three-mana instant that exiles any nonland permanent for 3 life.
Arcane Denial ↗
Two-mana counterspell. Its controller draws up to two later and you draw one, so save it for a spell that matters.
4. Make more of your permanents all colors
Jared's -3, Knight of New Alara and Iridian Maelstrom all reward creatures that are many colors. Cards that make your board all colors, or that count colors, turn every creature into a payoff.
What to look for Cards that make your permanents all colors, or that grow, draw or make mana for each color of spell you cast.
Cut, for example
Fusion Elemental A five-mana 8/8 with no abilities. It is all colors, but it does nothing else and has no evasion.
Transguild Courier A four-mana 3/3 that is all colors. It counts for Knight of New Alara but is weak on its own.
Add, for example
Leyline of the Guildpact ↗
Every nonland permanent you control is all colors, and every land you control is every basic land type. It fixes the mana and turns on every color payoff.
Ramos, Dragon Engine ↗
Grows by one counter per color of each spell you cast, and removing five counters adds two mana of each color once a turn.
Kenrith, the Returned King ↗
A five-mana 5/5 with one ability per color: haste and trample, counters, life, card draw, or reanimation.
Win conditions
The upgraded deck wins by building a board of large all-color creatures. Jared Carthalion makes a Kavu each turn, Knight of New Alara turns each one into an 8/8, and Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile adds Angels for every all-color spell. Iridian Maelstrom clears everything else, and Two-Headed Hellkite and Maelstrom Archangel carry damage in the air.
Who should buy this precon
A moderate deck for a player who wants to play all five colors and enjoys sequencing lands and fixing. The early turns ask you to plan which tapped land to play when, and the planeswalker commander has to be defended. Once the mana works, the decisions are simple: cast big multicolored spells and attack.
Checked against the printed decklist on October 10, 2026.
Track how the upgrades actually perform.
TurnZero HQ keeps a win rate per deck version, so you can change a few cards, play some games, and see the difference instead of guessing.
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